


Sleep Tight

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Multi, Sharing a Bed, Sleepwalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12296799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: It wasn’t the first time a sleeping Odin had ever shown up at his bedroom door, but it was the first time Selena had ever accompanied him.





	Sleep Tight

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write this a while back and didn't finish? There was a preface scene involving Odin sleepwalking more and more throughout the week and Laslow dealing with it all, but today I decided it was fine as is and made some minor edits before posting. I hope you enjoy!

Selena realized Odin was standing on the walkway with her approximately half a second before she watched him stumble and teeter on the edge of the roof.

Her arm shot out. She reeled him in.

Had anyone else been around to hear, she would have vehemently denied the sound she made as she watched him wobble—but as it was, she was the only one on duty and Odin effortlessly slumped against her shoulder after a hard yank on his arm. He didn’t stir.

Even after being saved from a rude awakening and a broken leg at the very least, he was just as sound asleep as he’d probably been for hours, even after wandering the castle for gods knew how long.

“Jeez,” she muttered under her breath, both hopful and fearful that she’d wake him up.

She pulled away slightly, missing the warmth of his bare skin against her shoulder almost immediately. Because Odin was the type of person to sleep shirtless, of course. At least he had on pants. Selena didn’t want to think about what she’d have to do if Odin wandered around in—less.

Her face grew warm at the thought. Another reason it was good she was practically alone.

Odin straightened and miraculously didn’t take any more dives off the roof. His eyes were half-lidded at best, and he clearly wasn’t looking at her. Selena doubted he was registering anything at all except dreamland. With her hand on his arm, he didn’t immediately begin to wander, but she didn’t put it past him not to ditch her the moment she took her eyes off him.

She’d heard Laslow complain about Odin’s sleepwalking enough this past week, but gods, what was _she_ supposed to do about it?

“Hey,” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

Obviously not. Odin made some kind of humming noise, but it was soft enough that it could have been a sigh. She grimaced. He was probably dreaming about dragons or dark swordsmen or whatever.

This wasn’t anything like holding Noire’s hand in the middle of the night so Noire could find the bathroom. Odin wasn’t even _awake_.

Well. Selena been a guide in the dark before. How hard could it be to guide someone who couldn’t even say no?

“I’m the best guide,” Selena muttered. Her own words made her chest swell. Yeah, she was totally the best. Or, at least, she would be. “I’m _amazing_.”

Odin made another sound. She took that as a vote of his agreement.

Then he began to wander again, and she had to pull him back.

Odin frowned, displeased even in his sleep, and Selena shushed him.

“You’re fine, you big baby,” she said quietly. “It’s your own fault for coming out here in the first place. You should just tie yourself to the bed already.”

As she spoke, Odin’s frown lessened. He didn’t resist when she began to tug him back inside.

Goodness, she was a natural. She’d hold this over both Laslow and Odin’s heads in the morning. Then they’d owe her for getting the in way of her duties _and_ for doing such a good job. Laslow would be begging her for Odin-wrangling lessons before the day was out. The thought was totally worth dropping her patrol shift on someone else. It wasn’t like they were at war anymore anyway.

Satisfied with the thought, Selena double checked that all was quiet and snuck back inside. The door leading from the roof to the castle swung open with barely a sound.

She couldn’t just abandon her guard duties outright, however. Selena wanted Lady Camilla to rely on her for every task, big or small. That didn’t mean Selena couldn’t get someone to cover her shift for her for only a _second_ , though, did it? She’d pay them back eventually. And if she remembered correctly, Hinata was supposed to be wandering the halls this time of night and Selena—

—walked right into Setsuna.

“Ouch! You—”

She bit her tongue and swallowed her complaints. This was an opportunity.

Even after running into her, it still seemed to take Setsuna an extra few seconds to realize Selena and Odin were there.

“…Oh,” Setsuna eventually said. “Selena. Hi.”

“Good evening,” Selena said politely. “What brings you out here at this time of night?”

A cool breeze blew in through the open door and behind her, Odin—probably seeking the nearest source of warmth, she thought—pressed his cold nose into the back of Selena’s neck.

Selena definitely _didn’t_ squeak.

At least, Setsuna didn’t say anything about it, so. Same thing.

“I was going back to my room after archery practice,” Setsuna explained in that slow, dry voice that drove Selena nuts. “But I guess I was daydreaming—”

“Great!” Selena chirped too brightly, not even caring if she sounded fake. Setsuna probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. What _Selena_ noticed was that Setsuna still had her bow on her. Perfect. “As you can obviously see, Odin here is obviously sleepwalking, and I need to make sure he doesn’t start wandering into enemy territory on his own. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Setsuna echoed.

Selena nodded. “Obviously.”

Setsuna’s eyes slowly dragged over to where Odin stood behind Selena’s shoulder as if noticing him for the first time.

“I’ve wandered into enemy territory without realizing it before. It’s not fun.”

_Obviously._

“Exactly!” Selena said. “So you wouldn’t mind helping out a fellow retainer and taking my place on guard duty tonight?”

They were standing in the doorway to the castle, which was still _technically_ Selena’s patrol area, so she wasn’t worried that she was slacking off on her duties just yet. If Setsuna said no and Selena had to go off on her own to find a new replacement, however—

No, Selena wouldn’t just abandon her duties like that. Odin would just be in for a rude awakening in the morning when he woke up all raw and cold from the wind, and Selena would be less likely to get unsolicited praise. But if it had to be that way, then it had to be that way.

Still, she didn’t like that outcome at all.

“I can make it up to you,” Selena hastily added. “I’ll take your guard duty for another night! Or I’ll do another favor for you. Or whatever.” A beat. “So?”

Setsuna blinked so _slowly_. It was like her thoughts drifted through her head like molasses. How long did she really need to consider Selena’s offer?

“Okay,” Setsuna eventually said, smiling gently. “That sounds good to me.”

Selena grinned back at her. Yes, yes, _yes!_ Things were finally going her way.

“Thanks! Kaze will come relieve you in a few hours, just hang around here until then, okaythanksbye.”

The last part was said rather hastily as she pulled Odin around a corner and out of sight. As happily as she would accept praise in the morning, Selena wasn’t particularly looking forward to being caught leaving her shift early and getting subsequently chewed out by that know-it-all Jakob or, worse, Lady Camilla herself. Lady Camilla enjoyed her beauty sleep, but the fear that Beruka or someone else would mention Selena to her still made Selena speed up.

Selena, Laslow, and Odin’s rooms weren’t too far apart, all things considered. Retainers were expected to stay semi-close to their lords and ladies, but even with the distance between the royal’s rooms and the countless halls in Castle Krakenburg, most of the retainers were still stationed pretty close together. Selena could drop Odin off and get back to her own beauty sleep in no time. Or let Setsuna off the hook, since Selena wasn’t sure how long she could really trust the archer not to go wandering off on her own while on duty.

The first flaw in her plan appeared when they got close to Odin’s room. Selena couldn’t just drop Odin off and leave. He’d be up and walking around on his own in no time, no matter what Laslow said about just “putting him to bed” whenever he caught Odin sleepwalking. Selena didn’t have anything to tie him down with either. Then she considered bringing Odin back to _her_ room and disregarded that idea almost immediately.

That left only Laslow’s room, and she didn’t think Laslow had anywhere to be tonight. It was late enough that even he had to return from one of his infamous midnight walks. Of course Laslow would be there to help her. (Which didn’t make Selena any less awesome for having gotten this far on her own.)

She didn’t feel bad about rapping her knuckles against Laslow’s door and interrupting his sleep. Odin didn’t stir, not even as her knocks grew louder and she heard Laslow roll out of bed on the other side of the door with a muffled curse.

The door swung open.

“The castle had better be being stormed—Selena?”

Laslow had awful bedhead. He squinted at her as though he thought she was a dream.

_Did_ Laslow dream about her?

About all of them, she meant, of course. Her and Laslow and Odin. And everybody else. Of course. There’d be no reason for Laslow to be dreaming about Selena specifically. Except, there was no reason he _shouldn’t_ be dreaming about her specifically. She had looks and talent and it wasn’t like she _wanted_ Laslow to be dreaming about her, it was just that—

She scowled and shook her head, ignoring the confused look Laslow sent her. It was his fault her brain was running in circles away. Her dumb thoughts had been doing that with the three of them more and more often lately.

Laslow saved her from having to say anything by finally looking behind her and sighing. “We should just get him a bell, shouldn’t we?”

She’d half expected him to start with some empty compliment about how radiant she looked this time of night. Laslow was probably too tired for it. The change of pace was a pleasant surprise.

“Probably,” Selena said.

Odin slept on.

 

 

 

While it would have been a lie to say Laslow had _never_ toyed with the thought of Selena knocking on his door late one night (or for some other fair maiden to do the same, though that addition had usually been an excuse to pretend Selena wasn’t the go-to woman of his fantasies), it would have most definitely been a lie to say he’d ever considered that thought for longer than it took him to spontaneously combust.

Which was to say that he had never considered that idea for longer than a millisecond. He had certainly never imagined her bursting through his doorway, throwing an unconscious Odin onto his messy sheets and then flinging herself after him to steal all of Laslow’s pillows.

But that was precisely what the real Selena did.

She’d come from patrol, obviously. Selena was shucking off her boots even as Laslow stared at her—at the way her rosy hair splayed across his pillows, tickling the underside of Odin’s chin. She stared up at the ceiling like it had wronged her somehow. Laslow looked at her dumbly, suddenly too aware of the places his nightshirt stuck to his skin. It was a warm night, for Nohr.

Odin was shirtless. Because of course he would be. He probably hadn’t even thought about wearing something less revealing before hopping into bed tonight, heedless of the fact he could be stalking the castle grounds in a few hours. Which, apparently, he had been. Just as he had for every night of the past week, Laslow thought.

It wasn’t the first time a sleeping Odin had shown up at his door. Odin’s sleepwalking seemed to have become more and more frequent lately, not unlike when they had been worried children, and instead of Inigo waking up to find Owain curled at the foot of his bedroll in the early hours of the morning, now an unconscious Odin appeared on Laslow’s doorstep more often than not.

The sleepwalking was a trait Laslow had long since chalked up to Lissa’s infamous restlessness and Odin’s own brand of eccentricity. If it was hereditary, he pitied Odin’s future children.

He hadn’t been kidding when he’d suggested they get Odin a bell. At least then they’d hear him coming.

It wasn’t the first time a sleeping Odin had ever shown up at his bedroom door, but it was the first time Selena had ever accompanied him.

Laslow swallowed. The whole room felt a little too warm.

It was late, the two people he’d known and craved the longest had just appeared in his bedroom, and Laslow’s brain could not be blamed for the hoops it was jumping through to justify what he was seeing.

Sure, he’d shared bedrolls with Odin often enough before, as well as with Selena a time or two when things had been particularly rough, but neither had ever actually crawled into his real, adult bed in the middle of the night. They weren’t at camp or at war anymore. The atmosphere felt different. Seeing Odin and Selena there on his mattress—it didn’t feel at all like sharing bedrolls.

Odin began to roll over. Selena immediately threw her arm out to steady him, most likely to keep him from falling off the edge. When Laslow looked, he saw Odin had been rather precariously balanced on the edge of Laslow’s mattress.

Selena caught his eye. They both looked away.

“W-what?” Her voice caught, the way it so often did when Selena felt _she’d_ been caught. “It’s not like I could tie him down or anything. Your room was closer.”

Laslow wasn’t quite sure he believed her, but he was very distracted. He let it slide.

Selena squinted at him. “What’re you staring at?”

Laslow’s throat felt too dry to speak.

Selena rolled her eyes. She laid back against his bed. He thought she was trying for casual, but there was something too tight around her eyes for that to be the case. Her arm still laid across Odin’s back, her fingers spread against his bare skin.

They looked. Nice. Cozy, if not for the uncomfortable angle Odin’s face was pressed against the mattress. Laslow shuffled over to help him adjust, grateful for something to do with his hands. He felt Odin relax under his hands as soon as he was finished.

Odin looked good like that, laying in Laslow’s bed.

Laslow glanced over. Selena did too, of course.

Selena had finished taking off her socks by the time he had finished with Odin. She chucked her leather breastplate across the room and caught him staring.

“Listen, don’t be weird about this or anything, okay?” she said. “You’ve been dealing with Odin’s dumb sleepwalking the most and I already got Setsuna to cover my shift, so it’s not like I can go back on patrol now.”

Laslow nodded.

“You not saying anything is making this _weird_ ,” Selena added, voice strained.

Laslow opened his mouth and searched for the words to make everything not weird.

Below him, Odin mumbled something. He had a freckle between his shoulder blades, and Laslow wanted to press his lips to it.

“Well?” Selena said.

“You’re beautiful,” Laslow breathed. It felt like the air his lungs had been lost at the sight of her. He always thought she was beautiful. Always. But there was something about this time of night, when it was so late it was early again, that—

Selena rolled her head back. “Ugh, don’t start with hollow compliments now.”

“They’re not empty,” Laslow said. He always said that, but it was still very much the truth. Selena must have sensed something felt different because she began to sit up, but that was the last thing Laslow wanted. He unfroze his feet from the floor, shuffled around the other side of the bed and slid in beside her. It felt too honest, like it was the opposite of what he should have been doing, but in that moment it was the only thing he wanted to do in the world.

The air felt heavy and thick, and Laslow wanted to avoid it. They were all three in a row—Laslow, Selena, Odin—but it wasn’t quite right.

There was a long minute of silence as Selena stared at the ceiling, Laslow pretended not to be looking at her, and, somewhere over the curve of Selena’s shoulder, Odin snored.

Laslow’s bed was not particularly small. It was sizable enough for two people, but with Laslow unwilling to lay too close to Selena for fear of upsetting her, his back was very much to the open air. A few scant inches further and he would have fallen off the bed, the same way Odin nearly had.

For a moment, the brief thought of spooning Selena crossed his mind and Laslow’s brain nearly exploded. Then he thought of Selena spooning him instead and he went cross-eyed. He could feel the steam shooting from his ears, even if no one else could see it.

It was very awkward.

Finally, Selena shot up with a growl. “I can’t sleep like this!”

Laslow stared at her, wide-eyed.

“There’s no way I’m sleeping in full clothes. It isn’t comfortable! I’m taking my pants off!” She pointed a finger in Laslow’s face. “This isn’t weird!”

“Absolutely not weird,” Laslow agreed. It seemed very likely that his heart was going to shoot out of his chest. After she’d taken her armor off, he hadn’t even registered that she was still fully dressed. He’d been a bit too concerned with not making an absolute fool of himself to notice.

Selena’s pants hit the floor. She laid back down with a huff. Her bare feet did not touch Laslow’s, but he wished they had, despite how cold he knew her toes to be from previous experience.

Silence broken, Laslow gathered up the tiny shards of his remaining courage and said, “Ah, shouldn’t Odin sleep in the middle? So he won’t sneak out without waking us, I mean.”

Odin had done that before, when they were young, but the moment he finished speaking Laslow realized that had been the wrong thing to say. Selena rolled over to face him, scowling, and Laslow froze, helpless to do anything but watch.

“So you don’t think I can watch him by myself, is that it?” Selena accused. Laslow wanted to protest, but she barreled on. “I bet you didn’t even want me here! Why didn’t you say anything earlier, you _jerk_ , before I go around embarrassing myself for—"

“I do want you!” Laslow said. Then his words caught up with his mouth and he hastened to correct himself as Selena stared at him, aghast. “I mean—I don’t mind you being here. In my bed. I mean—”

Selena looked at him with wide eyes, her jaw slack. She’d yet to let her hair down for the night.

Laslow covered his eyes with his hands. “I’m sorry. You just caught me off-guard tonight. Stay, would you? I promise to be a gentleman.”

He added a teasing smile and exaggerated wink for good measure. Gestures Selena would hopefully see as comforts and not as the last bastions of his self-confidence.

It might have been his imagination, but he thought her cheeks were pink. It was too dark to tell for sure.

“Yeah, well.” Selena’s voice was significantly more subdued. She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s not like I planned this.”

“I don’t think anybody does,” Laslow offered. He looked past her. “Sleepwalking really does throw a wrench one’s schedule, doesn’t it?”

Selena glanced over her shoulder. “Sleepwalking. Yeah.”

She turned away and kicked Odin in the shin.

“Wake up, sleepy head,” she said. “So the rest of us can get some rest already.”

Laslow was already pushing himself up. “Selena, we should let him—”

“No way,” Selena said, too loudly. Not that they had been particularly quiet before. “He always gets to sleep while the rest of us deal with his antics. Now he can deal with them.”

Selena’s kick must have finally jostled him enough to wake him because Odin was slowly cracking open his eyes. His hair was even more a mess than usual, Laslow noticed. He needed a haircut.

Odin’s voice was full of sleep when he asked, “Is it morning?”

“Not quite,” Laslow said gently.

“Switch with me,” Selena said with no preamble. Laslow thought she was gentle in her own way.

To his credit—or obliviousness, Laslow wasn’t sure—Odin didn’t ask questions. He rolled towards the middle as Selena crawled over him, switching their positions. Laslow instinctively reached out a hand to catch Odin, grabbing him around the middle as he threatened to push Laslow off the edge. His skin was warm as always.

“Steady there,” Laslow soothed, more sure of himself now that he was in familiar territory. He took the chance to push himself towards the inside of the bed as well, moving away from his dangerous position on the edge.

Odin tucked his head under Laslow’s chin. His legs tangled themselves with Laslow’s, and when Laslow looked up, he saw Selena watching them carefully.

“There,” Selena whispered. “Problem solved.”

Now she laid on her side, arm tucked under her head.

There were two pillows on the bed. Laslow and Selena were using them both. Odin didn’t normally bother with them, but for some reason Laslow caught himself thinking about buying more anyway.

Laslow licked his dry lips. “You can scoot in a little closer, you know. I don’t think Odin will mind.”

She shot him an unreadable look but, after a moment’s hesitation, moved closer. She practically plastered herself to the curve of Odin’s back before seemingly deeming herself comfortable. The redness of Selena’s face and the scant space between her body and Odin’s was just enough for Laslow not to say anything.

As though she was making a split-second decision, Selena’s arm shot out and she laid her hand atop Laslow’s own, right where it sat on Odin’s hip. Her eyes didn’t meet his.

Laslow twisted his wrist and squeezed her hand. Selena squeaked and look back at him, startled. It was cute, and he felt braver by the second.

“I’m glad you decided to bring him here,” Laslow said, hoping Selena would catch on to all the things he wasn’t saying.

There was a pause before Selena spoke up.

“Yeah, well.” Her voice was subdued. “I’ve known you guys longest, right? If I can’t depend on you, then there’s no point to anything.”

She was right, of course. Laslow felt the same.

“Goodnight,” he said.

Selena breathed in. She looked determined.

“Goodnight,” she echoed.

Between them, Odin made a humming noise and buried his face into Laslow’s collarbone.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone feels too out of character (for instance, Laslow is shyer than normal), please consider what being awake at 3am will do to a person.
> 
> I wanted to write a sleepwalking fic, and because Lissa canonically has trouble sleeping when she worries too much (shown in her Supports with Henry), I thought that sleep trouble would translate a little differently for Owain/Odin. It was worth a shot, at least.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/)


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